Tajin seasoning is one of those blends you can just obsess over. From sprinkling it on fruit to bringing a fiery tang to margarita glass rims – it’s a winner in my book. So call me excited to try their hot sauce! Is it everything you’d expect from Tajin, but in liquid form? Does it add anything to the mix that’s a surprise? How does it stack up to other hot sauces? Let’s dive in to see what Tajin Mild Hot Sauce is all about.
The classic Tajin flavor of its chili lime seasoning is in full-form in their Tajin Mild Hot Sauce. Tangy and salty, with just a touch of heat. It delivers exactly what you’d expect in all the best ways.
- "As you'd expect" delicious chili lime flavor
- Very eatable mild spiciness (family-friendly)
- Highly usable
- Higher in sodium than many competitors
Table of Contents
Flavor
Tajin seasoning is a simple recipe – just chili peppers, lime, and sea salt. It’s as simple as a chili lime seasoning gets. Tajin Hot Sauce has just a few more ingredients, but the additions are merely for transitioning to liquid form, thickening it, and preserving the sauce. The ingredients are: chili peppers, salt, dehydrated lime juice, xanthan gum (thickener), 0.1% sodium benzoate (a preservative.)
On paper, Tajin hot sauce is very true to the seasoning blend form. Nothing fancy added. The chili peppers hit you at the top, followed quickly with the saltiness and tanginess you’d expect. And they blend very well.
The sea salt adds a bit of texture to this sauce and the lime concentrate adds that expected tang. Since this isn’t a vinegar-based sauce, the lime concentrate adds just the right amount of acidity to the overall flavor to make it addicting. And underneath it all is the heat from the chili peppers, and even a light hint of smokiness from those chilies that I didn’t expect. It’s all-around delicious.
Let’s talk briefly about the sodium, especially since salt is a primary ingredient here. The sodium sits at 100mg per teaspoon serving, or 4% of your daily allowance. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but Tajin Hot Sauce (likely not surprisingly) goes very quickly. It’s pretty mild (more on that below) and thin – so it’s easy to go well past a teaspoon per serving. Keep that in mind while using it. You likely want to pull back on extra salt.
Heat Balance
It’s in the branding – this is a mild hot sauce. No surprises here. It’s believed the chili peppers in Tajin are a mix of chile de arbol, pasilla, and guajillo chilies – all medium heat chilies. But once they are diluted with the other spices (and in the hot sauce’s case, water), that spiciness drops fast.
It’s a spiciness, too, that doesn’t linger. It just warms up your tongue and never stays beyond a bite or two. There is a bit of a build here, as you eat more and more, but it never really goes beyond a warming heat. Really, the citrusy tartness becomes more of the driving taste than the heat itself. And that’s alright by me – it’s exactly what you’d expect from a hot sauce made by Tajin. And they label it mild right on the bottle.
Usability
The great news is nearly anywhere you’d consider using Tajin seasoning, you could also opt for Tajin Mild Hot Sauce. And it particularly shines with soups and beverages. I made a Bloody Mary with it, and it knocked my socks off. Totally delicious. And it’s just as tasty with burritos, chicken, beans, burgers, and popcorn – just to name a few potential use cases.
I tried it, as well, with a classic Tajin use case – atop fruit. It totally gives the expected zing, but here the liquid option is sub-par to the seasoning. And for an obvious reason. The seasoning stays put atop the fruit, while the hot sauce tends to drizzle down and off. It didn’t flavor the fruit as consistently from bite to bite.
On the bottle: This squeeze bottle has a spout that is the size of a quarter, but it has a plastic filter that slows down the rate at which the sauce comes out. This hot sauce is on the thinner side, so take care when squeezing. It can come out much quicker than you think.
Collectibility
Tajin lovers will enjoy showing off their bottle, that’s for sure. And it’s not as well-known as the spice blend equivalent. So you could get a few “Tajin makes a hot sauce?” moments from time to time. But this is a big brand extension, no doubt. Today, Tajin is present in over 30 countries in the world and a leading brand in Mexico and the United States.
The label looks just like the classic Tajin label you see on their seasoning. The proud colors of Mexico make up this label, and I love the clear illustration of the small lime right under the logo. It reminds you that Tajin’s shining star is that delicious tart fruit.
The Score
The classic Tajin flavor of its chili lime seasoning is in full-form in their Tajin Mild Hot Sauce. Tangy and salty, with just a touch of heat. It delivers exactly what you’d expect in all the best ways.
| FINAL SCORE | 4.4 |
| Overall Flavor | 5 |
| Heat Balance | 4 |
| Usability | 4.5 |
| Collectibility | 4 |
| X-Factor | 4.5 |
Must-read related posts
- Homemade Chili Lime Seasoning: This recipe is not a Tajin copy cat, rather a more robust seasoning blend using many more spices.
- Our Hot Sauce Rankings: We review and rank over 100 hot sauces to help you find your next new favorite.
- The Hot Pepper List: We profile 150+ chilies. Search them by name, flavor, heat balance, origin, and more.